The Art of Dick Mathews and Life in an Earlier Unionville

Before cars were a way of life, downtown Unionville buzzed with people visiting small businesses along South Main Street. A new exhibit at the offers a look back at the people and places in town in the 1960s through “A Man and His Times: The Photography of Dick Mathews.”

Mathews, a Unionville resident and then a reporter for The Hartford Times, captured this place and way of life in photographs just before many of the downtown buildings were swept away by redevelopment.

The area was the center – of town, of life, and all that its residents needed was clustered in the downtown area. was hemmed by the Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church, both of which have since moved to Avon.

Several department stores, including Myrtle Mills, offered whatever one was looking for. Mathews shows First National in its original location and again after being moved to what would eventually become Stop & Shop.

“Buildings turned from facing the sidewalk to facing parking lots,” explained John Vibert, a docent at the museum. “Zoning laws were just beginning and they were encouraging more higher occupancy buildings.”

And so houses and stores were torn down, little shops with overhead apartments were cleared away. Some of the businesses, like the Ole Town Grille, Parsons and Ryan Pharmacy survived.

“The rest moved away or closed up,” Vibert said.

Matthews shows the streets of Unionville lined with signs, dotted with old cars, men in suits, women in hats. One photo shows the old traffic rotary.

There are portraits of town officials and a kindergarten teacher leading her class in song.

Another set records the steeple being removed from First Church and the building before its classroom wing addition.

Relive the early 1960s as Dick Mathews saw them and learn more about the artist today at an opening reception from 2-4 p.m. The exhibit runs through Nov. 6. For more information, visit the museum website.